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Release Date: 28 November 2025
Label: Silent Wish Records
Packaging Type: Digipak
No of Units: 1
Barcode: 0767062070159
Genres: Jazz Vocal Jazz
Description
Award-winning vocalist Ian Shaw presents Stephensong, a long-awaited exploration of Stephen Sondheim's iconic repertoire. With elegant, intimate arrangements from pianist and collaborator Barry Green, Shaw brings a deeply personal perspective to the songs, informed by his life, activism and artistic journey, with Sondheim's personal blessing dating back to the 1990s.
From classics such as 'Somewhere' and 'Being Alive' to lesser-known treasures like 'I Remember' and 'Take Me To The World', Shaw approaches the material with subtlety, precision and a storyteller's instinct. The recording was made with deliberate simplicity - minimal rehearsal and just a few takes - capturing the rapport built over decades of collaboration between Shaw and Green. "I've known these songs for years, but always through an actor's eyes and ears. It took me a long time to feel ready to record them," explains Shaw. "I didn't want to show off or pull them out of context. They're so beautifully melodic, like Ellington or Strayhorn - you just sing them, and your thumbprint comes through in the sound of your voice."
For Shaw, this album resonates far beyond the music. His activist history and lived experience give Sondheim's explorations of struggle, survival and identity a renewed urgency. "I'm gay: I've got scars from my Section 28 demonstrations. These songs mean something, they're about conflict, about resilience. And we're all feeling that now."
Stephensong is not a tribute record, but a bold retelling of one of the 20th century's greatest songwriters through the lens of one of the UK's finest interpreters of song. "Sondheim's lyrics are conversational but poetic, and every phrase carries its own resolution," Shaw reflects. "It's tough, disciplined writing - but that's what makes it brilliant. These songs are about real people, and they tell truths we all recognise."
"The irrepressible Ian Shaw gets back to basics, i.e. piano and voice, with keys man Barry Green for the effervescent Stephensong. It's an exquisite duo take on the music of Stephen Sondheim, with Shaw poignant and powerful in equal measure." - Mike Flynn, Jazzwise
Tracklisting
Ian Shaw
Ian Shaw & Barry Green
Ian Shaw & Barry Green
Marion Rampal
Jazzchor Freiburg
Mina Agossi
Billie Holiday
Boz Scaggs
Alexis Cole
Christy Baron
